In an opinion piece for NBC Sports, Steve Silverman suggest the Bears best move with linebacker Brian Urlacher is to trade him.

He may be royalty in Chicago football lore, standing with the likes of Bill George, Dick Butkus and Mike Singletary among the Bears’ dominant middle linebackers, but the truth is that he is fourth in that group and he’s not getting any better. Trading Urlacher before the 2008 season would be the best move for a Bears team that slipped dramatically in 2007 and may be even worse this year.

Urlacher’s trade value is high right now, even if he did have “minor” surgery on his neck during the offseason. He claims he is 100 percent and will be able to perform up to his usual standards.

That means at a Pro Bowl level. But if you’re Angelo you have to think of the players that are going on the field with Urlacher. The offense is going to be Lilliputian and that means the defense is going to be out on the field for 33 or 34 minutes a game on the average Sunday. Guys with nagging injuries are going to get hurt and the defense is going to start breaking down.

That’s simply a fact of life in the NFL. It’s usually not an overwhelming offense or a dominating defense that wins or gets a team to the playoffs. It’s balance. An offense must be balanced between run and pass. A team must be balanced between offense and defense. If a team has those elements and can also play on special teams, it can win.

The Bears are caught between a rock and a hard place with the Grrlacher situation. It’s understandable that they don’t want dole out a huge pay raise to an aging player who’s dinged up. But there’s no question Urlacher can still play and you don’t want to be known as an organization that doesn’t take care of your players. (The Bears just did this song and dance with Lance Briggs.)

I get why Silverman suggests the Bears trade Urlacher for offense, but it’s not that easy. Even if they do land offensive contributors, those players still might not pan out and then you have a hole in the middle of your defense. And the middle linebacker position in the Tampa 2 is the most important position on the field. It’s a slippery slope the Bears are on.